‘It’s pretty nebulous and if this business over Shenfield had never arisen, I doubt if I’d have given it another thought. There was the glimmer of a shadow, not from the scene itself but because of where it was and some probable dodgy dealings in the Chinese herbalist below, and even that we can’t be certain about because there’s no evidence – yet.’

‘The path verdict was death from an OD?’

‘It was. How difficult would it be to discover that it wasn’t?’

‘You mean if it was suicide or administered by someone else instead?’

‘Yes.’

‘The suicide or OD are more difficult, strangely. There was a lot of work done on this quite a few years back – 2009 I think, but I’d have to look it up to confirm that. It was really about the difficulty of judging the amounts of a substance in live bodies, dead bodies and then dead bodies that have been in the deep-freeze for a bit because everything changes and then changes again. It’s quite complicated but I can get some stuff over to you.’

‘I’d appreciate that. But are you saying the amount of heroin that had been injected and would have proved fatal can’t be accurately determined in a PM?’

‘With all caveats, yes. It’s not quite as straightforward as that makes it sound.’

‘Nothing is. What about the administered?’

‘That’s easier. Examination of the injection site, position of syringe if it was still inserted when the first photos were taken, position of the body, any other injuries and, if there were, were they recent, ante- or post-mortem –’

‘And if they were sustained on the spot or elsewhere?’

‘That’s more your job – I mean, if you drag a body across any surface, you leave traces. Did the forensics find anything like of that sort?’

‘No, and the PM report doesn’t record anything found either – traces on the skin, particles.’

‘But you’re not happy?’

‘I’m hovering.’

‘Want me to take a look?’

‘At the report? If you think you might find something, yes please, Adam, that would be above and beyond.’

‘Well, no promises on the result, but if I did find any cause for concern you’d have grounds to apply for a second PM.’

‘Difficult. The coroner released the body and they’ve had the funeral.’

‘Not cremation though because then you are buggered.’

‘No.’

Adam looked at Simon over his glass.

‘Then I know what your next move is.’

‘Indeed.’

They both stood up, but before they left the bar, Adam reached into his pocket.

‘Indulge me,’ he said, and scrolled down his phone screen briefly, before handing it over. ‘He was a few weeks premature, so he was in the special care baby unit – bonding is really important, with both parents. Skin to skin. Jacob’s fine now, by the way.’